


Inlaws and Outlaws

by punkrockgaia



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Abby and Cecil are more alike than they think, Anger, Family Feels, Family Issues, Gen, M/M, Marriage, Threats of Violence, implied threats of violence, pre-Episode 100
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 11:49:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16743436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkrockgaia/pseuds/punkrockgaia
Summary: Abby has Carlos over for a talk.





	Inlaws and Outlaws

Carlos sat in the waiting room of the Night Vale Community College Bursar’s Office, absentmindedly thumbing through an old copy of “Entity” magazine, but his mind wasn’t on the articles, even the one profiling “The Hottest Couples of the Blood Space War!” Instead, his thoughts were filled with a pleasant curiosity, as they frequently were. All curiosity was pleasant, even if it was terrifying and left him with a distinct wobbly feeling in the pit of his stomach. The receptionist, a swarm of mildly-glowing gnats working in concert, called his name through an ingenious coordination of buzzing tones, and he looked up.

“Mr. The Scientist, Ms. Palmer will see you now.” The swarm gestured toward the particle board door set just behind it, emblazoned with a plastic plate bearing the name of his future sister-in-law. Carlos nodded his thanks and went through the door to a small office. He smiled warmly. “Hi, Abby, how are you?”

The woman seated behind the tightly-organized desk looked up from her papers with a tight smile. “Carlos. Have a seat.” She gestured toward a vinyl-upholstered chair just across from her. 

The pleasant curiosity Carlos had been enjoying threatened to curdle into a far-less-pleasant anxiety. He and Abby had always had a cordial, if not warm, relationship. (Once he had met her, anyway. It had taken a surprisingly long amount of time to learn that Cecil even _had_ a sister, much less meet her.) But her tone was less than friendly now. He perched on the edge of the chair and raised an eyebrow, listing off data points in his head to calm his nerves. 

1.) Abby is older than Cecil, by roughly five years, although what that means given the weirdness of time and of aging in Night Vale is up for debate.  
2.) Abby and Cecil look similar enough that you can see the resemblance if you know they are related, but not so much that you would immediately pick them out as brother and sister.  
3.) Their personalities are dissimilar, in a way that is obvious whether you know they are related or not, but that wouldn’t seem significant if they were acquaintances but is interesting if you know they are brother and sister.  
4.) Abby and Cecil have a rather strained relationship, sometimes more so than others. This is intriguing to Carlos, because he loves Cecil, but possibly not to anyone else.  
5.) Abby is the bursar of the college. Carlos realizes he does not know what a bursar does, as it is not science. But it is science to find things out, so…

“Abby, what does a bursar do?”

Abby grimaced. “A bursar burses. It’s right in the name. I thought you were supposed to be smart.” She picked up the sheaf of papers and gestured toward him. “But I didn’t bring you here to talk shop.” She set the papers down and cleared her throat. “Janice… Janice tells me that you and my brother are engaged.”

Carlos brightened. “Oh! Yes! We are! We’re both super-excited, thank you!”

Abby’s mouth worked as if she were chewing on her words. Finally, she spit them out, speaking in a slow, even tone of voice. “You’re welcome, I’m sure. But I wanted to register my firm opposition. In other words, I do not approve. Not at all. So I’m going to do what I can to stop it.” She folded her hands in front of her and nodded as if the matter was settled.

Carlos blinked at her, momentarily speechless, which is sometimes a thing that a scientist is. Then the speechlessness passed and he became dumbfounded, which is not necessarily something that a scientist is, but is definitely what Carlos was at the moment.

“What? Wh-? I mean, if this is to get back at Cecil for not liking Steve, I mean, that’s…”

“Ah ha! Ha! Ha!” Abby appeared to be laughing, but the sounds came out as tight, clipped syllables, which made Carlos suspect that she was most likely not laughing at the elaborate prank she’d pulled on her brother’s fiancé. “Please,” she said, drawing out the word. “This has nothing to do with Steve. It has to do with the way I feel about **you**.”

Carlos blushed and squirmed in his seat. “Oh, wow, that’s flattering, Abby, but…”

Nooooo!” Abby roared, loud enough to shake the vertical blinds that obscured the view of the waiting room. The ficus in the corner dropped its leaves and shriveled. “No! No!” She gripped the edge of her desk tightly, as if restraining herself from leaping across her blotter to throttle the oblivious scientist. “It has to do with the way I feel about you, and the way you treat my brother!”

“What? How I treat Cecil? I don’t —“

“Let me finish!” Abby snapped, knuckles white as she clenched the veneer. “You know what, Carlos? I liked you. You weren’t like the other guys Cecil dated. You treated him right, you seemed to really care about him, and then ppfffhfhfhfh!” Carlos leaned back in a vain attempt not to get sprayed with spit. “You left him! Abandoned him, just like they all do! Just like everyone he cares about! Just like mom did, just like Earl did! Just like whatshisface and whatshisname, and all the other assholes who used him and left him hanging out to dry! And then I have to watch him fall apart, and there’s nothing I can do about it!”

Abby’s eyes bulged behind the lenses of her glasses, and tendons were standing out on her wrists and neck. There was a quiet crackling sound as the cheap wood of the desk started to crumble in her clenched hands. “And then, when you couldn’t find time to tear yourself away from your so called ‘research,’ you almost convinced my naive, trusting brother to leave Night Vale, to tear himself away from everything he’s ever known, from Janice, from me! And I used to like you, but now when I think about you, I could just, I could just, EAAUUUGH!” With a final bellow, the portions of her desktop broke away in her hands, and she held them aloft, panting and wild-eyed. 

Carlos watched her for a moment, then responded in a quiet voice. “Can I speak now?” Abby stared at him, then nodded. She put her arms down, but her fists still clenched around the hunks of laminated plywood. When he saw that he was in no immediate danger, he continued. 

He chose his words carefully, delivering them in a soft voice, partly so as not to poke the fragile moment of peace, but also… “Abby, I — I can see that you care a lot about your brother. And… thank you for trying to protect him.” Abby nodded warily, and he continued. “But you should know, I never meant to abandon Cecil, and I never wanted to leave him at all. I got shut out of town, remember?”

Abby’s nostrils flared threateningly. “Sure, at first, maybe. But you didn’t make much of an effort to get back, did you? I listen to his show, you know!” She leaned across the desk and waved a desk chunk at him. “Don’t deny it!”

“I — I’m a scientist, Abby.”

“Don’t give me that excuse, it might work on Cecil, but it doesn’t on me!”

He held up his hands pleadingly, but there was a stern edge to his voice. “Hey, let _me_ have a chance to finish now, okay? I’m a scientist, and one of the things a scientist does is make the best out of a bad situation. But sometimes scientists do _not_ do is explain themselves very well, even to someone they love very much. I hated being apart from him every day I was away, but maybe I didn’t make that clear. I was just trying to keep myself sane. I know it hurt Cecil when I was gone, and he knows I know. And I’m never going to stop making sure he knows I’m never going to leave him again. And it’s not always easy, but we’re working on it. And he believed in us enough to accept my proposal, so I think that’s a good sign. He’s not a stupid man. But if if works out or doesn’t, how is that your call? Isn’t that something he and I get to decide together?”

“I… I don’t know,” Abby said, wearily, her fury momentarily spent. “I just… He doesn’t let me help him, you know. He doesn’t talk to me. I could have talked this out with him, but…” She shook her head. “I had to find out he was engaged from my daughter.” She put the wood, now crumbles of rough-hewn sawdust, down on the blotter and sighed. “What can I do?”

“You could trust him, maybe?” Carlos asked, carefully.

“It’s hard. He’s my baby brother… I’ve always only wanted the best for him, even if he won’t accept it,” she said, voice wavering. Then she swiped tears out of the corners of her eyes and sat up straight, smoothing her bob haircut and straightening the lapels on her blazer. “I’m sorry, Carlos. I was out of line. I won’t stand in the way of your marriage. And I’m sorry I may have been — threatening. That was wrong of me.”

Carlos smiled gently. “It’s okay. Honestly, I wasn’t even that scared. I saw how your brother was during that whole ‘Telly incident,’ and if that didn’t scare me off…” He chuckled and stood, and held out his hand for a handshake. “We okay now?”

Abby nodded, but stood and pulled him in tight for a hug. “We are… I’ll be proud to have you as a brother-in-law.” She regarded him steadily. “But if you hurt him, just remember, as scary as Cecil can be, I’m _ten times worse._ "

“It’s double brother,” Carlos corrected, and with a wave, he left the office and went home. 

*********************  
When Carlos entered his house, he found Cecil on the couch, feet propped up on an ottoman. He was staring at some sort of sitcom, or possibly a test pattern, or possibly a municipally-mandated mind control feed, on the television. He brightened when his fiancé walked in, pushing himself to his feet and giving him a happy kiss. 

“Bunny! You’re home a little late, did you have important science to do?”

Carlos nuzzled into his shoulder. “No, actually, Abby called me and I went over to her office for a talk.”

Cecil stepped back and peered at him. “Really? Abby? Why?”

Carlos hesitated for a moment, not wanting to upset him. “She, um, Janice told her that we were engaged, and she wanted to talk about it. She had… concerns. But we’ve talked, and it’s okay now, I think.”

Cecil’s eyes flashed and his cheeks grew red. “And what business is it of hers? And why did she call **you**? She’s always sticking her nose in!” he fumed, waving his hands in the air. 

Carlos put his hand on Cecil’s shoulder. “Hey! Hey. Cee, she was worried about you. Because… well, reasons. And she probably called me because you didn’t even tell her we were getting married. Why did you tell Janice and not her?”

Cecil shook his head. “I didn’t think she’d care. I told Janice because I figured she’d be more excited for us.”

Carlos kissed him softly on the cheek. “She does care, Cee. More than you know.”

Cecil shrugged. “I don’t know, we’re just so different.”

“Less different than you think, actually,” Carlos said, thinking of Abby’s surprising strength and rage explosion. “Why don’t you give her a call tonight? Just to talk. I think it would be good for both of you.”

He sighed. “I guess I’ll give it a try.”

“That’s my honey-voiced honey,”’

Cecil looked down at his engagement ring and smiled. “You’re so good for me. I’m excited that I’m going to be your husband soon.” 

Carlos took him into his arms and held him tight. “Me, too. And you’re good for me, never forget that. And, Cee? I’m sorry that I was gone. I know I’ve said that before, but I want to make sure you know.”

Cecil nodded. “I do know. But you came back. And that’s what matters. And now you’re here.”

“Forever,” Carlos added, breaking away from the embrace and taking Cecil’s hand.

Cecil grinned and brought Carlos' knuckles to his lips for a kiss. “Forever. I like the sound of that.”

**Author's Note:**

> This title is so bad, I'm sorry. If I can think of something better, I'll fix it.


End file.
